


this was the very first page

by cinderlily



Series: everything has changed [2]
Category: Girl Meets World
Genre: F/M, First Dates, First Kiss, sap, they meet as adult au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-31
Updated: 2016-08-31
Packaged: 2018-08-12 03:32:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7918861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cinderlily/pseuds/cinderlily
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lucas and Riley's first date.</p>
            </blockquote>





	this was the very first page

Lucas showed up at Topanga’s a week later and walked in to find Riley at the counter with her computer, Josh behind the counter and who he’d found out to be Riley’s parents in the corner going over what looked like the books. 

He didn’t have to get to work for another hour or so but he kind of liked getting there when the place was just opening up. It made it feel quiet but homey and he missed that feeling most days. The room he stayed in was mostly a closet with a window and he technically had free reign of the communal spaces he still felt awkward there. 

“Mr. Friar!” Riley’s dad called out. He wasn’t entirely sure why he was called that, but Mr. Matthews had a way of saying it that made it nice and just that tiny bit of threatening at the same time. 

“Mr. Matthews, good morning,” he smiled. “How’s school?” 

Riley, who’d turned at the sound of his name, smiled. “They’re learning about Belgium in 1831.” 

“That’s… oddly specific,” he said. “How long is that lesson?” 

“You would be surprised,” Mr. Matthews shrugged. 

Riley beamed at her dad and then back at Lucas. She had that ability, smiling at him like he was literally the best thing ever created and he couldn’t help but smile back. “Come to see your name sake?” 

“Well, that and coffee,” he admitted. “I mean, the namesake is definitely top of the list…” 

That was a bold faced lie. Even the coffee was a far second to walking in and seeing Riley with her smile and her laugh. Josh put a mug down beside Riley and Riley grabbed it. 

“Come on, I could use a break,” she shrugged. 

“You’ve been writing for ten minutes,” her dad said and then, “OW.” 

Riley’s Mom (who was _actually_ named Topanga, go figure) smiled a little wider and wiggled her fingers at them. “You two have fun.” 

They walked out onto the front porch, where, in the corner there was a nice little set up for a new mom and her kittens. He had seen to it to find extra toys and gear that he could sneak over and had made it a habit to sneak by in the mornings and most nights to check in on the kittens. For purely professional reasons, naturally. 

Captain Fluffernut had long since become accustomed to his smell so when he approached she leapt out of the box and twined between his legs. 

“Hey Captain,” he said, leaning down to give a tentative scratch at her ears. She purred at him. 

“Wanna sit?” Riley asked, pulling out a chair. 

He pulled out her seat as well and waited for her to sit before he sat down, because his Papa taught him so. She blushed and tucked her hair behind her ear like she always did. (On the mornings Maya joined them she would laugh at him, calling him Heehaw. His accent wasn’t _that_ thick.) 

“So…” he started and stopped, lacking in any real conversation starter. They spent a good amount of time over the last week just talking and he was always afraid he was going to run out of things to say but then somehow … something would come up. 

“Do you like ice cream?” she asked and all tension relaxed. Every time. 

He scratched his chin like he was thinking about it. “Well, I guess so. I mean… who doesn’t like ice cream?” 

“Lactose intolerant people?” 

“That is a fair point…” 

“So, my friend Farkle was telling me…” 

He had to break in on that, “ _Farkle_?” 

“Yeah?” she looked at him like HE was the crazy one. “He is getting his doctorate at NYU. In Neuropsychology… Anyways. He says there is this place near school that has like… the best ice cream ever. Crazy flavors. He says there is peach cobbler and maple bacon and sweet tea…” 

She had him at ice cream but she won him over with the concept of sweet tea. Man, if he could find _actual_ sweet tea in this city he might just cry openly. Tea with a lot of sugar in it was just… so wrong. 

“Sweet tea ice cream?” 

She put her hand on her chin. “You want to go?” 

He swallowed. That sounded suspiciously like a date. And not that he hadn’t spent the better part of a week thinking of how he was going to ask her on one of those one of these days but he’d never actually been asked on one. He leaned his chin on his palm. 

“Isn’t that my line?” 

“Yeah, but you were taking too long,” he turned to find Maya at the door. “Morning Riles, morning Heehaw.”

“Good morning Maya,” he said, feeling the insane blush of a person who was being called out on being a chicken. 

Riley turned and frowned at her. “Your show is in four days, why are you here?” 

“Coffee. Coooooofffffeee,” Maya said, in a fairly good imitation of a Zombie. “Plus the guy behind the counter is kind of cute. I’ll let you two go back to being sickeningly sweet.” 

She blew them both a kiss and gave a wink, before she went inside. 

“Sorry about that,” Riley said. “She is just super protective. In general. But mostly of me.” 

Lucas couldn’t help but laugh. “Well, she’s going to be your aunt after all.” 

Riley stuck her tongue out. “Yeah, they’ve been dating three years and that is by no means any less weird. I mean… she liked him for forever. I mean, like… forever forever. But still…” 

“Yes, by the way.” 

“Yes it’s creepy?” Riley paused. 

“No, um, about the ice cream. We should go, you know. To there. Together. As a date?” 

Riley looked down and then back up. “Wait, was that last part a question?” 

“I guess, I mean, I wanted to ask you out but I was working myself up to it,” he rubbed the back of his neck. “Plus I didn’t know what you’d want to do. I thought we could go to the shelter but that might make you sad… or maybe to the zoo but those make me sad…” 

“Zoos make you sad?” 

“They just look so… contained. No hope of escape. The shelter there is hope, you know? They’ll go home and they’ll find a family. The zoo they’re… their. Forever.” 

Riley bit her lip. “I don’t like the zoo either.”

“Really?” 

“Yeah, or the circus. I did… at one point. But you’re right. It’s sad…. I would love the shelter though.” 

He perked up. “Really? Because I volunteer for one on Sundays. You could come down when I get off and then we could play with the animals for a while and get some ice cream… If that sounds good to you.” 

“That sounds _perfect_ ,” she said, and there was that smile again. He sipped at his coffee and reminded himself he was a grown up with a job and an apartment and not sixteen. It was something he reminded himself a lot around her. 

“So it’s a date,” he said, more as a personal affirmation than anything else. 

Riley nodded and at his feet Captain Fluffernut twirled back and forth giving him, seemingly, her sign of approval. 

It was totally worth getting up an hour and a half early. 

* 

He only really volunteered for a few hours on Sunday mornings, but that sunday felt eternal. Even with the steady flow of people bringing in pets for check ups and coming to look for animals to adopt he felt like every time he checked the clock it had gone back a few minutes. Rosie, one of the other volunteers, spent the better part of the morning laughing at him, after needling out of him the reason for his inability to stand still. 

“Hey Romeo,” Rose called out near the end of the morning. “Does your Juliet have dark hair and a smile that could make ice melt from blushing?” 

He turned around and found Riley standing at the end of the cages, knelt down and looking into one of the cages. She was talking to the dog in the cage and he was pretty sure that his heart was beating triple time. He checked his watch. 

Technically he still had ten minutes, but also technically she could be a person looking to adopt. He walked down to the cage and tried to look as casual as he could with his heart beating out of his chest. 

“Having a nice conversation?” he asked, looking at the tiny mutt she was talking to. 

“She is a good conversationalist, great listener,” Riley said, standing up. “You know you have a puppy in your pocket right?” 

He blinked and looked down, where indeed there was a puppy in his pocket. He’d been doing feedings for some puppies who’d been abandoned there. He picked up the puppy, who let out a lett woof of air. 

“I was going to feed him,” Lucas said, a little shyly. 

“Well carry on, Dr. Friar,” Riley waved at him. 

He felt a warm rush, and for once it wasn’t just his rampant crush on her. He was so close to being Dr. Friar, less than a year. It was kind of bizarre. He’d been working towards it for so long, a dream for him from the time he was so little. He turned around to walk back to the food source. He felt Riley follow behind him. 

“How old is that puppy?” she asked, seemingly concerned. 

“We’re thinking three weeks,” Lucas said, though he thought maybe a little younger. “They were dropped off last week, no mom.” 

She made a hurt noise in the back of her throat. “Poor little puppies. Who would do that?” 

Without asking she reached into the box and grabbed two of the remaining four puppies. She held them close to her chest and started to hum at them. 

“You guys are good little doggies, you are going to be the best grown up puppies ever, aren’t you?” she whispered, sprinkling kisses on top of the dogs heads. “Mean people are mean, but don’t worry little guys, Dr. Lucas will find you the best mommies and daddies, you’ll never have to worry about the mean guys ever again.” 

She sounded so confident in him, it was pretty nice. 

“I don’t have much control over that,” he admitted, feeling inexplicably guilty. “But I’ll make sure to screen them as best I can.” 

“I have total faith in you,” Riley said. “Look at these faces, how could anyone NOT want these faces in their lives?” 

He looked at _her face_. “I really don’t know.” 

“Hey, Romeo,” Rose called out. “You’re off. Lee will take over feeding duty, show the girl some of the cuter ones.” 

He was really hoping that nickname wouldn’t stick, he was already getting pretty much bombarded with them from Maya. Plus, well, Riley was laughing at him. That was probably not the best way to start a date, right? 

As he gently put down the puppy into the box with its siblings, he nodded towards Riley. “I have to, um, change out of these scrubs.” 

Lee walked up and gave a friendly smile. “I’ll keep her busy.” 

Not that he really felt threatened by a 19 year old college student, but he tried not to ball his fists at his side. Because like, that wasn’t nice. Riley, thankfully, was way too fascinated with the tiny puppies to really care about Lee, even though she wouldn’t. Lucas was never good with jealousy, one of the faults he’d tried to avoid since he graduated high school but whatever. 

“I’ll be right back,” he said, through a forced smile. 

“Bye Dr. Lucas,” she smiled at him, and again with the little foot wave from a tiny animal. It was like she was a Disney princess, he swore. 

He hurried back to the locker room and through the routine of getting out of his scrubs and washing himself down like a champ. (You never knew what fluids would end up on you during a session with various animals, he always thought it better not to really look.) He threw on his jeans and grabbed the nicer button down he’d brought. He thought about putting on cologne but he knew the dogs would go wild at new scents so he hoped he didn’t smell too bad. 

By the time he walked back out he found that Lee was leaning over and talking to the puppies that were in Riley’s hands and he, quite rationally, walked over and just kind of stood in Lee’s shadow until he noticed. He’d played football in highschool AND college, he knew what he was doing when it came to looming. 

Lee turned around and blinked up at him. “Oh, yeah. Just um, telling her which was a boy and which was a girl.” 

“Both girls, there’s only one boy and I was feeding him,” he said, a bit clipped. Riley gave him a quizzical look and he felt a little guilty so he eased up. He pointed at the smallest in the box. “Um. Only that one needs feeding right now, she’s been kind of fussy about food lately, so you have to put her in a blanket and sit with her.” 

“I got it, thanks for the heads up,” Lee smiled at him, like Lucas hadn’t just snapped at him for literally no reason. 

Riley put her hand out. “Want to go check out the kitties… I mean, they can’t be as cute as our kitties but…” 

Lucas put his arm out in return and she hooked her hand through it, they walked down the hallway and towards the area meant more for playing with the animals than the back where they cleaned and took care of them. He opened the door and he heard Riley make a slightly high pitched squeal. 

He knelt down when he saw his favorite kitty, who was walking around in circles. Were it not for the smallness of his room and the strict no animal policy, this cat would have been his day one. As such he had half dreaded half hope for her to go to a good home every week he volunteered. 

“This is Sabrina,” he said, when Riley sat down beside him. “Sabrina, this is Riley.” The cat meowed indifferently but when Riley offered out her hand she head butted it, always a good sign. 

“We’re going to be good friends, I see,” Riley teased. 

He rubbed foreheads with Sabrina. “Well, you are lucky. She is a very discerning cat. She doesn’t just like anyone.” 

“Is that so?” 

“She nips at three of the vets,” he said, conspiratorially. “But only the ones who gave her shots. She never forgets.” 

“Is that so? Well, Sabrina, we’ll be good friends. I never liked shots,” she said, gently running her fingers on top of Sabrina’s head. “I hid behind the exam table for two hours once.” 

Lucas let out a laugh that had Sabrina leaping out of his arms. “Two hours?” 

“Hey,” she said. “You scared Sabrina! And I’ll have you know, they were the ones who put a gap large enough for a three year old to sneak behind.” 

“How did you end up getting out?” he asked. 

Sabrina had walked over and started to circle Riley’s crouched legs. “I fell asleep, they moved the table and I got a shot. From then on they put the table against the wall.” 

“I wish I knew you back then,” he said, not really thinking about what he was saying until it was out there. She looked at him with curiosity. “Just. I wish I knew you a lot longer than just now. You seem like you would have made life magical…” 

He paused and felt his whole body flush up, just as she blushed. 

“Can we take that last part back? It makes me sound a little creepy.” 

“It does not,” she said, pushing at him with one finger in the chest. “I wish I knew you back then, too. Only, maybe not that day. It wasn’t my finest.” 

Lucas raised one eyebrow. “I would have protected you from the evil doctors. I was pretty big for my age.” 

“My Hero,” she batted her eyes dramatically, holding Sabrina against her chest. Sabrina looked at him and blinked a few times, he kind of thought she was giving him some sort of approval. 

* 

They ended up walking around and meeting all the animals. Riley was fascinated with the fact that Lucas knew all their names, and that he knew bits of their personality, so she made sure he told her everything. She fell in love with each one in turn, but in particular a turtle named Gus and a puppy named Axel. She kept telling him that she was going to come back but she’d have to get Maya approval. (He didn’t tell her he wasn’t holding his breath on that one.) 

When they finally ended the tour it was nearly two in the afternoon and he was definitely hungry. Riley decided that they needed to be real Adults, so they found a small little Ramen shop on the way to the subway station and ate food that wasn’t dessert to prep themselves for the ice cream place. 

He didn’t tell her he’d never tried actual Ramen that wasn’t from a styrofoam cup, instead he ordered what she got and acted like it was a coincidence. She asked him about growing up in Texas but he was so much more fascinated with growing up in New York. She laughed and told him that it wasn’t that exotic. Except it _was_ because he’d never been allowed to roam his city on foot and the only type of food that he’d tried in Texas was Mexican food, Italian food and the Chinese take out place. 

But he would exchange stories of living on a ranch and his very occasional trips to Mexico if it got him stories about mini-Riley and mini-Maya getting into trouble. (Though thankfully he was lucky enough to find out that Riley reigned Maya in as well as she could.) 

When they finished up and he covered the bill, much to Riley’s annoyance, they went towards the subway and got on. Riley told him the story of the first time she was allowed on it alone, and how she’d just ridden the rail with Maya for a while, finding her parents when she got back. He laughed at the idea of just going around in a huge circle but she said it was like the whole world had become hers that day. 

He admitted to getting lost on the subway the first day he moved to New York. And the second. And the third. And how finally he had to make a cheat sheet to keep him from ending up in the middle of nowhere completely unsure of how to get home. She laughed and leaned into him. She laughed even harder when she showed him that the cheat sheet was still in his wallet. 

Riley fell over his lap when it came to getting up at their stop and he caught her just in time to keep her from tumbling into the eye of the storm of people. 

“Hi,” he said and she laughed. 

“Hi,” she responded. “Come on, there is ice cream to be had.” 

She took his hand and stood up, she pulled him up. 

When they got out onto the platform he stopped her and gave her a quick and gentle kiss on the lips. 

“What was that for?” she asked when he pulled back. 

“It just felt right.” 

She smiled and kissed him again. “I agree.” 

* 

The ice cream was … interesting… the sweet tea seemed to be just too sugary so he went with Huckleberry Swirl. Riley picked out Honey Lavendar. It was not something he would have picked for his date but it was made more than worth it when they took their cones to go and walked the streets of New York, holding hands and exchanging ice cream at random. By the time they got tired enough to get back on the subway the ice cream was gone and Riley leaned her head up against his shoulder. 

“I’m glad I got to meet you _now_ ,” she sighed happily. 

He kissed her forehead. “Yeah, I guess we can just make _now_ magical.” 

She nuzzled him slightly and then leaned up for another kiss. “I like that.”

**Author's Note:**

> Apparently, I wasn't through yet? This was unbetaed, so all mistakes are mine. Constructive criticism very welcomed. 
> 
> Title, again, from Taylor Swift. What can I say, it fits?


End file.
